Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Mark Sanford drops out

I just learned Mark Sanford left the race. There was a timely article in Politico.


Learning this saved me a drive for an hour in light snow. The candidate trackers have him speaking at Franklin Pierce College, an hour from Manchester. I was planning on attending.

I had driven in the rain for an hour last week to see him talk to the College Republican group of the University of New Hampshire, but I learned it had been cancelled without notice, by the College Republicans, not by Sanford.

Sanford said that the impeachment talk dominated all presidential discussion and there was no room for Republican voters to discuss the fine points of what it meant to be a good Republican. My own sense is that there is no better time for Republicans to consider their real values.

Where are you, Paul Ryan?  Will you speak up louder, Mitt Romney? What happened to the people who like Ronald Reagan?

Saddest of all, what in the world happened to Lindsay Graham? 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

They’ve all drank deeply from the Kool Aid dosed up by the cult of Trump.

Kevin Stine said...

The huge majority of Republican voters want Trump to win again. That's all there really is to it. There's little market for an alternative. They like what they see.

It's not all Republicans, but resistance to Trump from the right, is futile.

Art Baden said...

So there are many theories as to why 90% of Republicans are supporting Trump. Here’s one question: what % of those who were Republicans in 2016 remain Republicans today. I haven’t seen data on that but it might impact Trump’s popularity - those disgusted with him may be leaving the GOP?

John C said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John C said...

I believe that Trump has amassed profound psychological, or I dare say, spiritual power that causes some people to become paralyzed like a deer in the headlights (Romney), or others to have deep irrational loyalty with a cult-like following. The test of the latter is their inability to abide the smallest criticism of their “Savior” without counter-attack. IMHO Our current political moment is not about “issues” or ideas. It’s all about fear. GOP leaders fear Trump, or fear losing their positions if they criticize him. His followers fear everything he tells them to fear. And his opposition fears the toxicity and regressiveness of his continued leadership and even the threat to democracy as we know it.

Anonymous said...

Republicans DON'T fear Trump. He's doing the work we voted for. He's the ONLY candidate who supported a wall. Don't forget that. He'd be gone tomorrow if the voters didn't want him. Republicans don't support Mitt Romney, because if they did, then he'd be president. Romney is an outlier.

John C said...

With all due respect you’ve proven my point my friend. Trump created a narrative of fear about Mexico that is hard to rationalize if you look at the data. But the story sticks. Here’s a test for you. List three of criticisms of Trump that you think are valid.